1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a modular communications radio architecture.
2. Discussion of the Known Art
Wideband radios are used, among other places, in the military where there is a continuing need to improve the size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP+C) of such radios. For example, in a so-called GMR/Cluster 1 radio architecture, there is a need to reduce the size of various circuit boards and their power consumption while maintaining the intended functionality of the boards.
In the above architecture, a radio core engine (CE) module is comprised of a circuit card assembly (CCA) including a digital modem circuit board measuring 9 by 6.5 inches. The modem board supports a 440GX Power PC processor with 1300 MIPS, 128 MBytes of DDR memory and 64 MB of Flash, and a 600 MHZ DSP with 64 MB of memory. The CCA also includes three additional circuit boards over which a number of electronic devices and components are arrayed in order to perform radio frequency (RF) transceiver functions of the core engine. Each one of the RF circuit boards also measures 9 by 6.5 inches. Notwithstanding, there is a need for a CE module that can be readily adapted to operate with a variety of existing and new wideband military radio communications platforms, many of which have only a limited amount of space within which to contain the module hardware.